$10K grant from Primera Plastics helps students make up for lost time in summer school

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By Lisa.Ermak@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4219

Holland Sentinel

By Lisa.Ermak@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4219

Posted Jun. 22, 2014 at 3:30 PM

By Lisa.Ermak@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4219

Posted Jun. 22, 2014 at 3:30 PM

Holland, Mich.

The generosity of one local business owner is allowing more than 100 Holland and West Ottawa students to afford summer school tuition this year.

The students will be able to make up lost credits and graduate on schedule thanks to a $10,000 tuition grant from Primera Plastics Founder and President Noel Cuellar. In 2013, Cuellar provided $5,000 in grants split evenly between Holland and West Ottawa's summer programs.

Cuellar spoke to the students last week at Holland’s VR Tech High School during the opening day of summer school.

A Holland High alumnus, Cuellar said he wasn't the best student in school, but learned the value of education later in life.

He went to Grand Rapids Community College in his late 20s to study plastics manufacturing technology while working full time and ended up building Primera Plastics into a company with $20 million in annual sales.

“My mom and dad were migrant workers who worked in the fields and for the Heinz pickle plant,” Cuellar said. “I barely graduated, and it wasn’t until eight years after school, when I was married and working, did I come to appreciate how education can change your life.”

The tuition grants will allow up to 100 area students, like Holland High senior Rocio Enriquez, take summer school classes through late July.

“It’s very important to me to pass all my courses and graduate with my class. I feel I would be lost if I couldn’t catch up this summer,” Enriquez said.

Holland Public Schools Superintendent Brian Davis said the tuition assistance is a “welcome gift” especially with the district’s tight budget.